An Evaluation of Legislative Frameworks and Structures for Policing Stock Theft in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa has been plagued by rising incidences of stock theft for decades. However, it is now evolving and perpetrated by organised syndicates rather than only petty thieves, the continuous demands for livestock aid to the manifestation of this crime. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate current legislative frameworks and available structures for policing stock theft in South African rural communities. This qualitative study adopted the non-empirical research design: Systematic review, supported by the evaluative research objective, while closely looking at recent South African reputable reports on this subject, restricted from 2000-2021 (Not in sequence) for data collections. The inductive Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) was employed for data analysis. The persistent nature of this problem poses serious threats to food security and livelihood development for the rural livestock farmers, as well as the commercial ones. It was clear that the legislative frameworks and structures for policing stock theft in South African rural communities are of the utmost importance to curb this crime. However, from a number of reported stock theft cases, the effectiveness of legislations and standing structures is highly questioned. Therefore, successful sustainable stock theft prevention strategies should consists of close and concerted partnership-based collaborations, interactions and information exchanges, based on enhancing legislative frameworks. This can offer additions, amendments, corrections, incorporating and re-drafting of ‘new sections’ of the existing Acts to improve their deterrent efforts.